Shanling M3X Portable Lossless Digital Audio Player & USB DAC

Product Information

This is a large bummer, as I have a very small collection of digital music and planned to heavily rely on this devices ability to download tidal tracks. They can be run in Dual DAC or in Single DAC mode, and there is a noticeable improvement when running them in dual DAC mode. Most Android DAPs won’t connect to Apple iPad/iPhones and the M3X doesn’t connect to my iDevices for DAC mode. I didn’t use bluetooth much since there was no AAC support so I didn’t feel like testing SBC quality when I knew from experience it wouldn’t sound that good.

Staging did sound fairly good and if you want a warm overall experience then the EST112 does work well enough. This is a really old Android N version now, but it works flawlessly, and I prefer having the stability it comes with above the newer features Android has, but which aren’t all that useful for DAPs. The USB DAC function is also handy, and it is one of the ways I have been enjoying M3X, to the point where I will actually add it to Audiophile-Heaven’s Hall Of Fame. The player is said to have a battery life of up to 23 hours on single DAC mode, even with its balanced output(also Dual DAC) the player can play music continuously for up to 19 hours. You still have access to setting, you can access wireless connections but you can’t access any other app.

In terms of nuances, the quality of the VE 3 was preferred, but the TSMR 5 had an enormously wider and wider stage. Nothing is mentioned about the glasses used on both the sides and I have not tried scratching them either but the pre applied protectors do help with confidence. The only thing to keep in mind is long term support for streaming apps as the OS is a bit old at this point. Shanling Quotes an output impedance of less than 10 OHMs, so I was concerned it may have some hissing with sensitive IEMs, but actually it is in the same ballpark as Lotoo Paw 6000and FiiO M11 PRO, so IEMs that are really sensitive may present some hiss, but most IEMs won’t have any trouble. Two Ricore RT6863 were added to serve as dedicated headphone amplifiers, allowing the player to deal easier with the headphone load and resulting in reduced distortion, increased dynamic range and overall improved clarity.

If you find your M3X Limited to be too warm to your liking or lacking some upper mids energy, switch to Apodizing filter. My version is the one with the X Case, one of the coolest looking cases I’ve seen in my entire life.

I personally like an edgy aesthetic, and while the player does not run warm enough to need the metallic grilles on the back to cool down, it is a really nice aesthetic touch, and provides good grips. At the bottom of the DAP, the M3X hosts a USB/DAC port as well as a single micro SD card slot (supporting up to 2TB of storage).

I’m honestly ok with the included accessories as most people don’t need more than the basics for a DAP. The M3X goes for a warm-neutral sound and doesn’t do anything exciting with the treble or detail retrieval. AGLO system enables that exactly, up to DAC’s limitations, which are, in this case, up to 32bit-384kHz. Do not mistake the vocal intimacy here as having a small soundstage though, as the soundstage here is pretty wide.I don’t really mind it as it gives confidence your finger or thumb is squarely aligned on the buttons. At the end of the day, it is an all-rounder, so if you need a high-quality DAP that can sound really amazing on Balanced, have tons of power, also on balanced, and which has a warm, beautiful display, and a refined, musical sound, Shanling M3X would be more than happy to oblige and make you happy for years to come. Right side houses the signature wheel which doubles as the power and wake up button, left side has three music controller buttons and the top is house to the 4.

I have tested the Shanlig M3X with numerous IEMs, such as Dunu SA6, Faerless S8P, BGVP DM8, Tansio Mirai TSMR 5, Vision Ears VE3. With support of UPnP you can connect to your media servers without carrying around your whole music library with you. Balanced out gives you better instrument separation, better layering, better soundstage depth, and more power. Of course, this means that any app that you can install on M3X will benefit from the integrated DACs to the full extent. If you’re using any streaming apps like I do, there is always the risk that the devs will drop support for older operating systems one day.

If you run into issues when pausing or getting pops from switching tracks with the outside buttons, go to settings, headset/bluetooth, then set wired headset from double/triple press to single press.